As the Crow flies?

“How far is it to Seymour?” John is my partner at work and knows Indiana like the back of his hand. Anytime I get lost or need to know how to get somewhere, I always ask John. “It’s about 40 miles as the crow flies,” John said. As the crow flies? Well now, that is an interesting question. How is that a crow flies and why is he deciding how far things are anyway? Has the Creator or some divinely inspired earthly council sat down and determined that the Crow is the final arbiter of distance? What is it about the Crow that puts him alone in such a lofty and singular role?

Think about this for a minute. Imagine a long time ago, probably in the old country (that’s what you say when you just don’t know where something happened), some great council of wise men decided to implement a method for figuring out distance. How could they have possibly arrived at the crow? I wonder if they got a bunch of birds together and figured out some way to test which one flew the straightest. Birds aren’t known to be very cooperative towards men, and certainly not in an event to determine which one would be the decider of space and travel. I don’t think birds would get along all that well together anyway. The Hawks, Falcons, and Eagles would try to eat the Sparrows, Robins, and Jayhawks. The Vultures and Buzzards would hang around looking for leftovers, and the rest of them would be busy trying to avoid getting eaten themselves. So, they’re all busy doing stuff that birds do. Much to the chagrin of farmers world-wide, Mr. Crow is busy looking for corn fields to eat. He doesn’t have time to fool with the other birds. So, that’s it! The Crow has it in his mind to focus on getting to the food first. Turns out this old crow is a pretty smart fellow. He has figured out his best plan to stay fed is to learn to fly in the most direct route to a known food source. So, this is all about food. My guess is they used a male crow in this test. You know as all males in creation go, their only real consideration is getting a full belly. That desire and focus is most certainly the reason why Crows are known to fly straighter than any other birds. Now you know how it is that “As the crow flies” came along.

Crows are focused. They are focused on their life’s pursuit and that has given them the lofty reputation they enjoy today. They also have a goal. Goal and focus. Two ingredients you and I need to succeed. How intensely I focus on my goal has a lot to do with how much I want it. How much I want that goal depends on how clear I have it defined. Mr. Crow knows exactly what he wants and how he is going to get it. Do you?